23 June, 2012

THE QURANIC SCIENCE

It is so often asserted with semi-intellectual air that such and such scientific discovery of recent years was actually prophesied in the Quran 1400 years ago.

A commoner is entitled like to ask the following:

a. Ought not a book meant to serve as a source of guidance for all people at all times read simpler and clearer given that the Omnipotent One should undoubtedly be capable of writing a far easier-to-understand manual to life than the Dummies’ series of computer learning books? And if the Quran is indeed such a manual then one should see Muslims following its instructions step by step as the computer learner would follow the operating system. Would you, dear readers, hold your hand to your heart in all honesty and assert that you DO follow Quranic instructions to resolve the issues of everyday life with practical utility?

b. If Quran did indeed foretell the scientific discoveries, shouldn’t the Muslims be the best scientists of earth today, having been endowed with early wisdom? Isn’t this how everything else works in life?

c. Do the various translations and commentaries of Quran written during early Islamic period, and throughout the previous centuries read the same as the science today explains these concepts? Or is it that they interpreted the vague concepts differently and the later generations kept rectifying them to suit contemporary understanding of nature?

d. Has Quran been helpful in unraveling these mysteries of nature – or is science being used by the conservative believers to validate Quran?